Donations benefit food pantries

David Mazzengadmazzenga@gatehousemedia.com

Sunday

Feb 17, 2019 at 12:00 PM

WAYNE COUNTY—Between each of its five locations in Honesdale, Lakeville, Newfoundland, Lakewood and Damascus, the Wayne County Pantry Program helps feed an average of 500 households each month, noted pantry coordinator Kathleen Chicoski.

The pantries are stocked primarily with items from the United States Department of Agriculture, specifically through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).

This federal program works to provide low-income households with supplemental nutritional foods including “canned and fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh and dried eggs, meat, poultry, fish, milk and cheese, pasta products, and cereal” as stated by TEFAP informational materials.

Available foods are determined by the individual market conditions of each state.

Despite the month-long federal government shutdown at the beginning of the year, pantry operations were unaffected, said Chicoski.

Wayne County's Pantry Program is also supplemented by private donors giving both food items and funding, Chicoski explained.

“Donations are always a big thing,” said the coordinator. “It helps supplement what we can give.”

She explained various holiday donation drives beginning around Thanksgiving each year help supplement distributions through January.

But the donation impetus tends to peter out by this time of year.

“We want to be able to give as much as possible,” said Chicoski, noting that a fair portion of the pantries' patrons are elderly.